


Like A Ghost

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, M/M, Other, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-30 16:37:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17832224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: After Crait, Poe and Leia’s relationship isn’t the same.





	Like A Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Presumed Dead
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”  
  
Poe stood in one of the rooms of the Millennium Falcon long after the battle of Crait, facing down General Organa. He didn’t want to shout her down, of course; she was an old woman, after all, and shouting down an old woman was just a cruel thing to do. And yet he wanted to. Being hit and humiliated and shot by her was one thing, but this was just the final straw.   
  
The straw that broke the bantha’s back.   
  
“About Ben?”  
  
Poe nodded. “You let me think...you let me think he was _dead...”_  
  
Leia looked at him. Her eyes were moist with what were the beginnings of tears. “Poe...he’s good as dead. You saw what he did.”  
  
“But he’s _there.”_ Poe’s voice cracked. “I saw him, walking down that ramp...and I wasn’t imagining things; I know what I saw. I saw him, facing Luke...” He was disorganized, rambling. “Was hitting, humiliating and shooting me not enough? You had to lie to me too? Did you know when you sent me to Jakku?”  
  
“I didn’t want to hurt you.”  
  
Poe looked at her. Already, he felt defeated — not for the first time, he just _knew_ Leia hated him.   
  
“I think that you’d best sit down,” Leia said. “And we can talk.”  
  
She no doubt hated him. Poe would sit down with her anyway.   
  
They sat down. Then Leia spoke. “When I sent you to Jakku...I had a feeling that Kylo Ren,” and here she said the name with disgust, “Would be after you. I didn’t think that he would get there that quickly. I only knew...the moment that I got the report back about the annihilation of Tuanul and your capture, I knew you were in trouble. I knew what Kylo Ren did to his prisoners. I didn’t think that...my son would do something so horrifying, but that man is not my son.”  
  
“It’s a part of him,” Poe said. He could still remember full well a bright smile, nimble hands using the Force to show off a new trick (much to Luke’s disapproval), large ears that Ben was self-conscious about. (Though he had made jokes about them as he’d gotten older. “They let me hear better,” he’d say)  
  
Leia shook her head. “They’re entirely different people, Poe. There’s hardly anything left of Ben Solo in Kylo Ren. I thought, simply thought, given his horror over the Hosnian system being destroyed, that there was some humanity in him. Now he’s become...unrecognizable.”  
  
She took a deep breath. “I never wanted to say that.”  
  
“He can’t be completely gone.” Poe said. “Ben...has to be in there. Somewhere.”  
  
Leia shook her head. “I wish I could say.”  
  
They sat next to each other, and Poe had a feeling that this would be what split them down the middle. What broke them, perhaps for good.


End file.
